DGA Monthly

D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 5 I 9 5 Debbie Allen on transitioning from Actor to Director when working on FAME: "It was like going to film school for five or six years, working on FAME, because I was in the editing room. It's where I really learned the craft of directing. I came in with that young sense of Busby Berkeley since I was a kid. I understood moving the camera. I didn't even know all the language, because I didn't go to film school, but I learned it so quickly. The crew started asking for me. They loved me because I always did my homework. I knew what I wanted. I knew when I was done. I remember we wrapped my first or second day like at three o'clock and they were like, 'Bring her back. Let her keep going.' Because I wasn't cutting it short but I knew what I wanted and it was refreshing." The DGA's Visual History Program is an endeavor designed to explore the art and craft of the Director and the Director's team via peer-to-peer interviews with other Directors, Assistant Directors, Unit Production Managers, Associate Directors and Stage Managers. Created in 2000 by the Special Projects Committee and consisting of more than 250 videotaped interviews, the Visual History Program serves as an invaluable teaching source for those curious about the craft, a preservation of the professional wisdom of DGA members, and a unique repository for Guild history. The interviews, which last between three and eight hours, emphasize reflective and collegial discussions about all aspects of the creative process in film, television and other media. Visual History interviews are accessible to all Guild members as well as to the general public on the DGA website. The Visual History database is fully searchable by topic, and each interview is indexed, allowing for quick retrieval of segments pertaining to specific interests and topics, either within a particular interview or across the entire collection. Featured here are a few excerpts from Directors regarding the beginnings of their careers. Perspectives on Career Beginnings from the Visual History Program Archives View more excerpts and interviews in the Visual History Collection via the link on the homepage of www.dga.org. Robert Altman on discovering his beginnings in an unlikely interaction: "I went into the air corps when I was 18. Became a flyer, B-24, South Pacific. I had 2nd cousin, Mary Rector, married to a radio announcer when I went overseas. She was secretary for [film producer and talent agent] Myron Selznick, I was star-struck. When I went overseas, I wrote to Mary, who I didn't know and wrote kind of funny. I was showing off. She sent me a letter back, 'So funny you should be a screenwriter.' From that moment on that's what I was. I was in the movie business. The day I got that letter, 'What are you going to do?' 'Oh, I'm a screenwriter.' My first bit of writing was two paragraphs of something that never matured but it was my story." Jesús Treviño on discovering how he could capture movements: "I graduated from college in 1968 with a B.A. in philosophy, applied to five philosophy graduate schools and was turned down by all five. I was devastated. I heard about a government program that was going to have a year long film training school directed entirely towards empowering African American, Latino, Native American youth. I lucked out and got involved in this program. We were each given a camera and they said, 'Go out and shoot something.' Well, the majority of us were heavily involved in the community, so we all went out and started shooting. I would film a community demonstration began to see that film could be utilized to organize people." Richard Donner on how he was first recommended to be a Director: "When I came out of the Navy, I got a job for a small commercial industrial company. We did good little films and really I learned every part of the trade. I loved it. Then I was offered a job acting in a small role in a live show and it was a great Director, Martin Ritt. I didn't get into an argument, I got into a discussion about something that I had supposed to be doing that I didn't do. He said, 'Your problem is you can't take direction.' I said, 'Oh thanks.' He said, 'You ought to be a Director.' I said, 'Oh sure.' He said, 'Okay, you're my assistant for the next two shows.' He was amazing. I went on to be assistant to Daniel Mann, David Alexander, quite a few Directors." Penelope Spheeris on transitioning from music journalism to directing music videos: "I was working at Slash Magazine writing movie reviews. It was the punk magazine, the street rag of the late '70s. While working on that magazine and going to punk rock shows, a friend of mine called me and said, 'How would you like to make a music video?' It's actually how I learned to shoot music. I did everything. I came up with the concept, met with the band, told them how we were going to shoot it. Then I would shoot one camera. I was writing them and directing them and producing them, shooting, cutting. It was funny. I didn't know it was the beginning of such an amazing movement."

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